


The Library on Caligo Way.

by Pups_Side_Box (Puppyinabox)



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: (technically) - Freeform, Eye Horror, Gen, Heterochromia, Leitner Books (The Magnus Archives), Stranger!martin, Taxidermy, The Stranger (The Magnus Archives) - Freeform, eyes that dont fit, librarian!martin, uhoh a leitner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24575200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Puppyinabox/pseuds/Pups_Side_Box
Summary: Statement of Patrick Clark regarding a library in his town and a strange librarian, statement given fourth of august, 2010, recorded to tape on twelfth of January, 2016, by Jonathan Sims, head archivist of the magnus institute, London.  Statement begins.This is a one-shot Stranger!Martin Blackwood fic, because the idea invaded my brain in the night and refused to allow me any sleep.
Kudos: 14





	The Library on Caligo Way.

Statement of Patrick Clark regarding a library in his town and a strange librarian, statement given fourth of august, 2010, recorded to tape on twelfth of January, 2016, by Jonathan Sims, head archivist of the magnus institute, London. Statement begins.

I can’t say I’m much of a reader, large collections of small text are difficult for me to focus on, but I like audiobooks and comics a lot though so when I saw that poster in The Yellow Dog, that’s a coffee shop and bakery that I frequent, about a library I hadn’t heard of I was interested. I know you can just get books online these days, but supporting an actual brick and mortar library just seems morally better, and besides it’s part of the community. I didn’t recognise the address or the library itself, but I suppose I didn’t spend much time in my hometown as it was considering I worked in the city and therefore most of my outings with friends were there. The poster was about some author coming by to do a live reading of their book, but the date of the live reading was about a week before I found the poster so all I really gathered from it was the location of the library. It was on a street I didn't remember existed, but when I drove down Caligo Way sure enough there it was. The street was lined with trees and actually was a bit of a ways away from the town center itself, it also seemed like the library was older than any other building in town. I didn’t remember the forest being there, but maybe I just hadn’t noticed before.

The door creaked on old hinges, and there was a puff of air that smelled like dust and old paper. It was like the air had been trapped in there for a long time. I didn’t see any cars around the building besides my own and I worried for a bit that no one was inside, until I turned and saw a man sitting at a large oak desk, his hands neatly folded. He looked at me expectantly, I gave him a curt nod as hello and began to look around. Though I didn’t face him I could feel his eyes on me, boring a hole in my back. Despite the smell no surface seemed to have any dust, in fact the library was almost as clean as a hospital. For a moment I thought it was odd the library had hard tile flooring. I don’t know why I’d expect carpet in a library, maybe because you’d think such a place would be frequented by the very young and the very old, both of which are prone to falls. But the floor instead was an abstract mosaic of tile, if I stared at it too long my head started to hurt, actually. 

I found a cd copy of Coraline, I’d heard the book was even more eerie than the movie, which scared me even as a teenager when it came out, so I thought it would be a good listen even if it was technically a children’s book. I picked up a large print recipe book and a graphic novelization of Gaelic folk tales, along with the CD, and then went to the desk to check them out. Sure enough when i turned towards the desk the man was still staring at me. I avoided his eyes, as he probably didn’t mean to stare and I’d be uncomfortable if he didn’t stop staring if our eyes met, and mumbled something about the weather. He gave a tight nod and scanned my books. He moved… I don’t know a way to describe it properly. Do you know those robot arms that assemble cars? How they have impossibly quick movements but still aren’t jerky but instead fluid. He moved like that, but slower. As if he moved exactly how he needed to, exactly how you’d expect, but nothing more. 

His posture was perfectly ram rod straight. This might sound a bit shallow of me, but it’s important. He was a chubby guy, alright? But it was more like he was shaped like a child’s plush toy. None of him moved the way human fat would on a body, it was more like… like he was stuffed. When we finished the transaction he shook my hand. That’s when… that’s when I fully decided that something was odd. His skin, the skin on his hands… it was soft. But not in the right way. His hands were soft in the way that rabbit hide is soft. Not human skin… but soft leather. 

His name tag said “Martin B.” This “Martin” smiled at me and when I finally met his eyes I noticed something.  
They didn’t match, I know that’s a condition some people have but- but they didn’t match in size either. One eye was green and it sat in his eye socket perfectly normally, as any eye would. 

But his other eye- his brown eye…. it looked like it was almost too small for where it sat. He never blinked, not once when I stared at his eyes. 

He didn’t seem to pay the staring any mind and said in a voice that sounded somehow tinny, like the pull-string voice in a doll.

“Coraline’s a good book, care for a recommendation?”

I accepted, afraid if I declined he’d steal my eyes

“Still Life, by Melissa Milgrom.” He smiled wide, “it’s riveting.”

I told him I’d consider it but that I wanted to finish Coraline first and he nodded. And I left, with all my limbs intact. I checked in the car.

When I got home I looked up the book he recommended.

It was a book on taxidermy.

Statement ends.

Mr.Clark gave his address here on the back of the page this statement is written on, so we were able to look into the layout of the town he claimed to live in. There is no Caligo Way, nor is there any library in the town besides the local school’s small collection. The nearest Library is in a neighboring town, however that town does not have a “Caligo way” either. Sasha checked and Mr.Clark did live at the address he listed at the time, but has since moved. He refuses to give a follow up, claiming he’s “had enough of scary stories.”... I don’t suppose he enjoyed Coraline very much. Regardless, because he has no last name for this alleged “Martin” and his first name itself is rather common we have no way to track down this individual. I had Tim go out into Mr.Clark’s town to see if the satellite map’s we found simply weren’t up to date but he didn’t find anything. Mr.Clark did however send the copy of Gaelic folk tales he borrowed from the library, apparently no other library would accept the books in return so it would seem wherever he went it was not in the official library system. I have yet to investigate the book much, as when I opened the cover I found something. Underneath the library plate for “Caligo Library” was the bookplate for the Library of Jurgen Leitner. Sasha has it in artifact storage at the moment.

End recording.

**Author's Note:**

> Caligo means dark/smoke/shrouded in shadow in Latin so I thought that would work for the mysteriousness of the stranger


End file.
